Reddit’s crisis is a warning for all social platforms: when you trade community for profits, everyone loses. Will Reddit fix its mes...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19466667

Money, Mods, and Mayhem

The Turning Point

In 2024, Reddit is a far cry from its scrappy startup roots. With over 430 million monthly active users and more than 100,000 active communities, it’s a social media giant. But with great power comes great responsibility, and Reddit is learning this lesson the hard way.

The turning point came in June 2023 when Reddit announced changes to its API pricing. For the uninitiated, API stands for Application Programming Interface, and it’s basically the secret sauce that allows third-party apps to interact with Reddit. The new pricing model threatened to kill off popular third-party apps like Apollo, whose developer Christian Selig didn’t mince words: “Reddit’s API changes are not just unfair, they’re unsustainable for third-party apps.”

Over 8,000 subreddits went dark in protest.

The blackout should have reminded Reddit’s overlords of a crucial fact: Reddit’s success was built on the backs of its users. The platform had cultivated a sense of ownership among its community, and now that community was biting back.

One moderator summed it up perfectly: “We’re the ones who keep this site running, and we’re being ignored.”

    • AtomicHotSauce@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      7 个月前

      he huffs and breathes in all of Musk’s farts

      This is comedic gold. But the bad part? I envisioned it. Thanks a lot.

    • abbadon420@lemm.ee
      18·
      7 个月前

      And he’s getting rich off of it too. I mean, that’s his whole gain, right? Money! He’s given his soul for money. The whole community hates him, but at least he’s gotten rich now. I’m sure reddit’s annual founders parties must be a hoot.

        • OutlierBlue@lemmy.caEnglish
          7·
          7 个月前

          For a group of so-called intellectuals and rowdy revolutionists

          Those were the early days of Reddit. They’re long gone now that everyone has joined. Those so-called intellectuals and rowdy revolutionists have now abandoned Reddit. It’s mostly just the sheep left there now.

          It’s the same story with Twitter.

        • PlexSheep@infosec.pub
          1·
          7 个月前

          Well, it’s dort of an anti-survivorship bias. Those that still sick around seem to not care even if it gets as bad as the other Corpo sites.

    • ramble81@lemm.ee
      17·
      7 个月前

      Spez has ultimately learned nothing

      He’s learned he can do this shit and make money. It may not be a perpetual money machine. But he now has enough and will milk it for all that’s left. That’s what he’s learned.

    • mesa@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      7 个月前

      Oh the irony getting removed by a mod here. Although its probably in the mod logs somewhere with an actual reason :)

      • laverabe@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        7 个月前

        actually it’s not … An admin banned OP (troll account). Seems that no record of comment exists. Kinda a bug in the Lemmy software where logs of banned accounts aren’t stored, or at least I don’t know how to see them.